I need a butter dish. I love to make large meals and to feed people and to use the good china. I like to make meals feel fancy and special and then someone asks for butter. I bring out a stick of butter in it’s wrapper, sometimes on a salad plate. There is nothing wrong with that, but if you knew me, you would know I feel a sense of shame about my lack of a butter dish. Today, I spent a good amount of time at a NYC establishment known as Make Meaning, painting a butter dish. I used two glazes – “smiley face” and “happy go lucky”- to paint a mod inspired butter dish. Of course I forgot to take a photo before it headed off to the kiln. I also tried my hand at making a glass ring. I assembled glass fragments and prepped them to head into the kiln as well. I will post pictures once I pick them up.

For those who need to see what I make, I also made a new recipe for dinner – lamb chops provencal. I love lamb and I love these lamb chops! So did my father and husband. The recipe is from Rozanne Gold’s “Healthy Eating 1-2-3.”

Valentine’s Day is a busy holiday for me because I have a three and a half year old daughter who is obsessed with pink, hearts, love, and candy. Originally, my husband and I were going to treat it like any other Monday, but at the last minute I decided a date was in order. My most amazing cousin was free to babysit and I scored a reservation at Gotham Bar and Grill. (We actually had a gift card to cover most of the meal!)

As for making stuff, I was busy in the realm of the written word. More revising, but revising is important and truth be told, way less scary than writing new stuff. I also wrote a long inscription in the book I gave my husband for Valentine’s Day. A long inscription was needed to make “The Atlantic,” by Simon Winchester into a romantic gift.

My eyes opened at five this morning and I hung out for twenty minutes unsure if I should get up and write. Five is awfully early. At 5:20, I swung my feet to the floor, grabbed some extra layers, and headed to the kitchen. I heard water rushing through the pipes in the walls reminding me that other people get up at this wee-hour to get ready for their day. Someone else in my building, or several someone elses, was up, showering, grooming, and primping, and preparing to go about their daily business. I fixed a pot of coffee and as the coffee maker went to work, so did I. I worked for over an hour on fixing tenses and “braiding” four pieces to my story. It was hard work and although I now have the form down, I have left behind a cut and paste mess that I will need to clean up later on, perhaps tomorrow.

My daughter has just woken up and she is no mood to be trifled with. I will let my husband deal with that situation today and I will begin my morning chores.

I have been busy making, making, making today but I have no pictures. I made a fancy breakfast of a salmon and asparagus hash which I topped with a runny, fried egg. Then I finished up a knitting/embroidery gift for a particular someone and then took my daughter to paint pottery at a place called Make Meaning on the Upper West Side. I will share pictures after gift recipients have received said gifts!

Today’s TAD is a bit different to me and alas, there are no pictures. Since I started participating in TAD in 2008, my creative self has been reawakened. I started “making things” and writing about “making things.” I found that when I put a little bit of effort into my writing, each piece turned out pretty well-written. I have always enjoyed writing well, but I rarely take the time to bother writing these days. Then, a few months ago, I allowed myself to embark on a project of personal essay writing. Each essay is related to one of the many activities that would be considered TAD worthy but all are connected by themes such as generations, the human body, and class. Part of my goal for TAD is to figure out how to write more consistently in different environments because my schedule isn’t anything if not in constant flux and I would like to write everyday. So there will be days where my TAD is writing and on those days I will tell you about my experience writing that day. I will not be sharing my work as I am not in a workshopping state of mind just yet. Today I worked on restructuring one of my essays – my first essay – into a non-linear form. As a dyslexic woman, I have worked so hard to think and write in a linear fashion. Except for the constant change in my tense within a paragraph in early drafts, I have gotten big picture linear story telling down, so now, to keep me and my readers on my toes, I have decided to leave linear alone and pursue a structure that writer Brenda Miller refers to as “braiding.”

Cross your fingers for me as this may result in tears and tremendous frustration.